@GuessME5 Well they do have it so this is your safety https://www.uah.edu/business
But definitely try for UChicago and Vandy as your privates.
@happymomof1, I just checked out EducationUSA and I’m hopeful they’ll be of great help. I’ll visit them soon. Thank you.
You have to understand, the people reading your financial aid application are real people. It’s not like they plug in your information and calculate what to give you.
If you make it 100% clear that your millionare NCP isn’t going to give you a dime for college, you’ll be considered as a 0 income 0 asset applicant.
So your understand further, 100% of students at such colleges with under 60,000 income are given a full ride. Imagine yourself.
“If you make it 100% clear that your millionare NCP isn’t going to give you a dime for college, you’ll be considered as a 0 income 0 asset applicant.”
This is not true. If that were the case, then every millionaire NCP - or every NCP - would refuse to pay anything.
“You have to understand, the people reading your financial aid application are real people. It’s not like they plug in your information and calculate what to give you.”
Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what they do.
Different colleges that want NCP information may have different thresholds for whether they will grant a waiver of NCP finances for need-based financial aid, since the purpose of the college requiring such is to limit its financial aid expense (with a possibly-intended side-effect of moving the family income profile of students upward). It is generally thought that most colleges are unwilling to grant such waivers in most cases, so that applying for an NCP waiver should be thought of as a reach in addition to whatever chances of admission that the student may have.
@gearmom: OP this poster has given a great piece of advice as the University of Alabama at Huntsville offers a 100% tuition scholarship for your SAT score. Additionally, housing will be free if your GPA is a 4.0 or higher.
You have to pay for food, personal items, books & travel.
This is a great start & should alleviate any anxieties or panic.
@thumper1 has provided a great list of schools as well.
P.S. My only concern is where your 4.0 GPA was earned. You need to contact schools to see if a 4.0 GPA earned outside of the US will equate to a 4.0 GPA for merit scholarship purposes.
@NEPatsGirl Princeton has its own financial aid form in addition to the FAFSA. It asks for non-custodial parent information.
University of Chicago changes it’s financial aid application process a few years ago…eliminating the required Profile. They use the FAFSA, and a very short U of Chicago form but not non-custodial parent information.
This student can apply for a non-custodial parent waiver…but will need to find out from each college what documentation they want for this. In addition, it might not be granted by all schools. But it might be worth a try.
@GuessME5 - Check the websites of the colleges on your list so far, and see if they require you to have your high school record formally evaluated. If they require this, they will include information about the organizations whose evaluations they accept. WES is the only organization that I know of whose evaluations are accepted everywhere, but you might find that evaluations for another are acceptable to all of your colleges/universities. www.wes.org
@Publisher Actually in India they give a Cumulative GPA for Grades 9th and 10th. I have a 10/10 CGPA. For Grades 11th and 12th it’s the percentage. So converting my percentage to American GPA gave me 4.0, but as you recommended, I’ll contact the colleges directly to see if that works for their merit aid.
@happymomof1, I have heard that USIEF (United States - India Educational Foundation) and EducationUSA do the evaluating work and are accepted by most of the colleges. I’ve no idea about Wes, I’ll check that out.
Just a quick question in between - is there any way I can find out if my NCP has ever claimed me as his dependent on his federal tax returns? He could be playing the game to get child tax credits.
Regarding the CSS Profile Waiver - I just checked out the form. It asks for a documentation to prove it. So can I get a statement or letter from my school counselor, principal or any teacher to explain the situation? Is one document enough?
Just one letter should be enough for the waiver.
Very unlikely if he has 5 other children and makes $250k (or even more you say).
I’m assuming that your mother doesn’t file US taxes. If she did and claimed you, and he claimed you too, the IRS would bounce one of those. If you start filing for yourself, his will get bounced. If you are wondering if he currently is claiming you, which is what it would take to get Texas instate rates, there really isn’t a way unless you file and claim yourself.
I think your better option is going to be full merit somewhere rather than instate rates in Texas. Instate rates still cost a lot of money.
@GuessME5 In US law, past child support owed (arrears) rarely go away. Your father is still obligated to pay for those two years even if he didn’t have job unless he filed with the court to have the support changed (which I am somehow doubting), but once he found work, the obligation would be back. Please look over the Texas rules on this and contact someone with the Texas child support office to see if you can get any of that money. It may only be a few thousand dollars, but it will be a few thousand more than you have now.
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/cs/welcome-to-the-child-support-division
@tutumom2001, I really appreciate your advice. I’ll try to look over it. It won’t be easy. He hasn’t paid the court ruled $50/month child support regularly every month. For the first 4 years after divorce decree, he didn’t pay anything. He was already way north of $100,000 (2004-05). He used to bank transfer of like average $3000 a year. Please enlighten me, do child support payments need to be done officially through Child Support Direct Deposit, etc.? He did send money but it was directly from his account to mom’s. So I’m looking at ways to still claim he didn’t send child support payments at all, as it was done in a private way? Also if he was directed to pay only $50 a month, how and why should he had paid $1750 or something? Is there any law mandating that? Thanks in advance.
The “injured party” here is your mom (although for sure you are bearing the brunt of this). Every single financial transaction except for handing over a pile of $20 bills leaves a paper trail. Your mom could have taken him to court for non-payment all the years he was NOT in compliance with the divorce agreement, and it would have been on him to prove that he paid (hard to do if he didn’t have a bank receipt showing a cancelled check, wire transfer, Venmo payment, etc.)
The law is that parents are required to abide by the court ordered divorce agreement. But there isn’t anyone who is “in charge” of figuring out who is in compliance and who is not. A parent who is not paying child support only gets “caught” when the other parent goes to court to get the wages garnished. The parent who owes can claim hardship and ask to have the payments reduced… but hardship means unemployment, not “I don’t feel like paying this month”.
This is very sad. Big hug to you as you sort this out.
@blossom But it seems like dad did provide some child support however lame. Can OP then get a waiver if support was provided?
Even if I mentioned the amount of child support he paid on FAFSA (which is 2 years behind in asking details, like that is 2016) as ZERO because he it didn’t send anything in 2016, 17 and till date, they wouldn’t really know how much exactly and when he paid. I don’t think they would go deep into the child support part, so I’ll just mention it as ZERO coz I don’t feel like reporting his peanut amounts. He last sent in 2015, $250 for an entire year.
I thought the OP said the child support was years ago.
This student has some options.
- Apply for non-custodial Profile waiver. Some schools might grant this.
- Apply to colleges with guaranteed merit aid at his stats level. Use the Pell and Direct Loan, and any parent contribution to pay for remaining costs if there are any.
- Apply to some schools with competitive full tuition/full ride or other generous merit awards. Apply early (not early decision...but get the applications in on the early side).
- Apply to colleges that use the Profile but do NOT require the non-custodial parent form.
- Apply to University of Chicago which meets full need...FAFSA and a Short U Chicago form.
- Go to undergrad in India.